Armenians; United Under Umbrella of Diversity (Winter 07)

by Shahane martirosyan

Barev. My name is something somethingian and I am an Armenian. I live in West Hollywood and I believe that keeping my culture alive is very important.

I have spent my life thus far in Yerevan, and later Los Angeles. This makes me an Armenian from Armenia who lives in the Armenian Diaspora- a common identity for Armenians who were forced to leave their homeland. There are those who moved here from Iran, Lebanon, Syria and countless European countries. All of us live here in southern California as part of one of the most unique and one of the largest Armenian Diaspora communities. But I refuse to discuss the difference between the Armenians based on their dissimilar regional background. In the next few paragraphs I am going to demonstrate how the different and distinguishable characters of the Armenians in the Diaspora add diversity to our group.

Hi. My name is something somethingyan and I am an Armenian. I live in East Hollywood and I believe that Armani Exchange is better than the brand you wear.

Many believe that keeping our culture alive is an easy task. Others disagree based on the fact that our culture is losing its touch with future generations of Diaspora populations. Something needs to be done about this. Those who believe that we are losing our culture arrive at this conclusion from looking at the way the Armenian youth dresses in Los Angeles. The saggy pants… the open belly… the piercing and tattoos… the mini skirts… the colorful hairstyles… But can’t we be Armenian even with all those supposed non-Armenian traits? I believe we can. For the past couple of months I was involved in the Armenian Students’ Association’s Cultural Festival, “Phenomenon of an Armenian Wedding.” Although the difference among the participants choice of attire was evident, the common denominator of us being Armenian was undeniable.

Parev. My name is something somethingian and I am an Armenian. I live in Glendale and I believe that riding on 22s is twice better than riding on 20s.

The rehearsals for the Armenian Wedding were scheduled at the Arbat Restaurant on San Fernando in the middle of Burbank and Glendale at 11 am Participants began arriving in their nice cars around 11:30am. Arriving fashionably late is expected. Different types of music was heard from the cars: Armenchik from the BMW… Tupac from the Chrysler… Techno from the Toyota… Hakhverdyan from the Mercedes… and on and on until around noon when everyone was there, apparently on time. Here I would like to address the issue of the critics who go around bashing how parents buy their children nice cars and how that’s not good because the children should learn this and the youth should learn that. On the other hand, looking at Armenian social history I have hard time trying to locate an instance during which the Armenian parent let their child take care of themselves before the wedding bells chime. Hence I believe that the Armenian with their personalized music on their personalized rims is only proudly displaying his/her culture.

What’s good? My name is something somethingian and I am an Armenian. I live in Montebello and I believe that smoking marijuana is healthier than smoking a cigarette.

As I mentioned above the rehearsals were held on a Sunday. Although only a few would admit to it, a lot more than the few were hung over. Even if Thursday night is the party night on campus, many of us are still a bit old school and prefer Saturday night since there is no school the next day and Lord knows we will not be found around any church. However, for every single Sunday of the month of January and February we danced to near exhaustion. Despite the difficulty, this enthusiastic group that made the Armenian Wedding come alive could care less about the night before. This group was determined to make February 21 unforgettable.

Hello. My name is something somethingyan and I am an Armenian. I live in Franklin Hills and I believe that virginity is very important.

On February 21, the Armenian girls wore the Armenian traditional outfits and performed on the Bruin Plaza in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Before this day, all the girls worked harder than the rest of the participants. The girls looked as dissimilar as humanely possible. There were the girls with designer bags… the ones with sweats… the ones with excellent cosmetic skills… the ones with nice, stuck up attitudes… the ones on hills… the ones with the overbearing parents… All different from one another- yet no drama. Contrary to popular belief, differences don’t divide us, but in fact make us remarkably united.

Hi. My name is something somethingian and I am an Armenian. I live in La Crescenta and I believe Homenetmen Ararat rocks.

I love Ararat and I am not even a bit Dashnag. Ararat has the ability to give the Armenian children the chance to preserve their culture. The recreation of the Armenian wedding was an example of what I like to call “an Ararat.” It gave young adults such as me the chance to get together with many fellow Armenians and do something that celebrates our heritage. We were all at some level different from one another; but were able to disregard this to attain an ultimate goal. This example must be followed by Armenians on a larger scale.

We, the people known as Hayer, may be divided by dialects, political views, morals and personal styles, but if we want to, we can be diversely united.

Hi. My name is something somethingian and I am an Armenian. I live in Pasadena and I believe that God made the Earth beautiful.